The Changing
by MaximumRideFangLover97
Summary: This is what I got when I combined Maximum Ride and Uglies. Yeah, crappy summary. Just read. Please.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Alright, so Ryan is a girl. Just thought I'd clear that up before you read.**

"Ryan?" a quiet voice called from the shadows.

"No," I sobbed. "I can't do this. Not here. Not ever. Just leave me alone."

A slight figure stepped out of the shadows. "I don't know what you're talking about," the other girl answered.

"How-how did you get up here?" I asked. There was no way this stranger could have gotten on my bedroom balcony. "Who are you, anyway?" I asked, looking closer.

"I am Ever. And, Ryan, the way I got up here must remain a secret unless you agree to come with me. Do you?" she asked.

I had known this day was coming. Every teenager gets taken to a secret facility near the edge of town where they are Trained and undergo the Change. Normally, they did not return until they were about eighteen. They were never allowed to tell anyone what happened, except for those who have undergone the Change themselves. But I didn't know they would come so soon. I was only thirteen. With the normal age for us to be Trained being around sixteen, I had thought I had a few more years. But there was no point in resisting. They would just come and take me while I was asleep. And there was the fact that they could not Train those who were unhealthy. They would have to fix the seemingly incurable illness that had been keeping me in my house for the past few weeks.

"Do you? Are you ready to be Trained, Ryan?" Ever asked.

"Yes."

"Do you swear never to tell an Unchanged what has transpired once you return? That you will remain silent about your time at the Training Center, unless you are asked by one of your status?" she asked.

"I do."

"Then by the power of our goddess Ever, for whom I am named, I bind you with the Oath of Secrecy. If this oath is ever broken, you, and whoever you told, will be killed on the spot. Are you ready to leave?"

"Y-yes," I stuttered.

Ever sighed. She wrapped her arms around my waist and jumped off of the balcony, tumbling into the darkness towards the street five stories below. Just before we hit the ground, something caught us. I looked up to see a huge pair of tawny wings stretched from Ever's back, flapping strongly. I smiled. I hoped what we heard at school was right, about the Unchanged being picked up by a creature who is the same as what they would become. If so, then I would grow wings. And the Changed with wings always had the most fun.

**A/N: Yeah, the first chapter isn't the best chapter of the whole story, but it gets better. I promise.**


	2. Chapter 2

The Changing Ch. 2

"So where are we going, exactly?" I asked. They didn't tell us where we went to undergo the Change, in case someone broke in.

"The Facility," answered Ever vaguely.

I groaned inwardly. _That helps a lot,_ I thought. I didn't say it aloud, though. I was afraid she would get mad and drop me. We were very high up.

We had already flown several miles. The city was thinning out, giving way to fields and small thickets of trees and briars. On the horizon, I could see the sun beginning to rise.

Ever made a sharp turn. She began to flap her wings faster.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"We can't be seen. If someone sees us, they could follow us and find the Facility. We have to get there before the sun rises."

She flew in silence the rest of the way. I was afraid to speak, in case we were heard. Ever was flying too fast to hear me, anyway.

About five minutes later, we began to lose altitude. We were over an empty field with nothing but a few shrubs and short, stubby trees.

As we landed, I looked at Ever. "So now a helicopter or something is going to bring us the rest of the way?"

She shook her head. "We're here."

I looked around. "You have got to be kidding me. _This _is the Facility? There's nothing here!"

Ever smiled. "This isn't the Facility."

"Then what is?"

She pulled a remote out of her pocket and pressed a button. An elevator rose out of the ground. She pulled me inside, and the hatch closed.

She pushed a button that said ground floor on it. The elevator began to go down, then stopped. The hatch reopened. I gasped.

"This," Ever said, smiling, "is the Facility. Welcome, Ryan."

I stepped out of the elevator. The inside of the Facility was beautiful, with giant gold and crystal chandeliers hanging from the high ceilings. Other winged people fluttered around them, practicing flight maneuvers. Soon, I would be able to join them.

I dragged my eyes away from the chandeliers. There was a huge pool about ten feet away, to my left. It must have been at least two hundred feet around. As I watched, one boy dove underwater. He didn't come back up. Instead, he sat on the bottom of the pool and waved at me, smirking. I waved back, mystified.

Just in front of us was a golden reception desk. Ever was talking to a young woman behind the counter. I walked towards her. The woman glanced at me, then continued her conversation with Ever. "We'll have to do something about that hair, of course," she said.

"Why? What's wrong with my hair?" I asked.

The woman ignored me. Of course she did. "Go on. You can take her down to floor three now."

Ever nodded and walked away. I ran to catch up. "What's on floor three?"

"You'll see," she answered, opening the elevator doors. We stepped back into the elevator. Ever pressed the button labeled three, and we began to go down.

**A/N: It's getting better, right? Just keep reading… Chapter three will come in a day or two…**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I know I said this would come in a day or two. I had already written it, though, and said that because I didn't think I would have enough time to post another chapter. Well, I did. So enjoy!**

… **I just realized I forgot to put disclaimers for the first two chapters…**

**Disclaimer for the first three chapters: I don't own Maximum Ride or Uglies. My name does not show up anywhere in the copyright information for either book.**

Apparently, floor three was the salon.

"No," I growled.

"You have to," the salon manager answered. We had been going on like this for a few minutes, and she was getting on my nerves.

"No, I actually don't," I shot back.

"Ryan. Long hair gets in the way when you fly. Really long hair will get tangled up in your feathers and yank them out," Ever told me.

I growled in the back of my throat. I loved my hair. It was straight, golden brown, streaked through with light blonde from the sun, and fell to my ankles.

"And anyway, you need to be as light as possible when you fly, or else you won't get off the ground. And this," she said, gathering my hair up in her fist, "must weigh at least two pounds."

"Still," I said, trying to pull away. Jill wasn't in front of me anymore, and her scissors weren't on the counter. I pulled harder.

There was a swishing noise behind me, and suddenly I was free. I spun around. Ever was holding giant chunk of golden brown hair in her hand. My hand flew to my hair as I dared to look in the mirror. It had been chopped off at an angle, longer in the front than in the back, and just brushed the tops of my shoulders.

I gave Jill my special _I-hate-you-and-one-day-you-are-going-to-wake-up-missing-several-vital-organs_ look, and stormed out of the room.

Ever chased after me. I glared at her.

"It's not my fault!" she cried.

"You held me still!" I shot back.

"I didn't know she was going to cut it!"

"Yes, you did!"

"No I didn't!"

"What did you think she was going to do when she came up behind me holding freaking scissors?"

"Well… I did know she was going to cut it. But still."

We entered the elevator. "Just tell me when we get to the sleeping quarters," I muttered, turning away from her and closing my eyes.

"We're here," Ever said a minute later.

I stepped out of the elevator and into a beautiful hallway. The walls were covered with paintings of famous people who had Changed in the Facility. Each door was decorated differently, with plaques saying a name on them. _Johnna. Elise. Harriet. Jennifer. Ever._ I stopped outside Ever's. "This is your room?" I asked.

Ever nodded. "The doors are supposed to reflect who we are. We have to decorate them ourselves, and when we leave they put in a new door."

I examined the door more closely. There was a pair of wings that looked just like Ever's. Her name was written over and over again, filling up most of the space. The door itself was reddish in color, and made of wood. In the top of the door was a list of names. Mine was the last one. "Who are these people? And why am I part of this list?" I asked.

Ever looked at where I was pointing. "Those are all the people I've brought here. We add to our doors as time goes on, so I added your name the other day."

I continued down the hall. _Leah. Bella. _And, finally, mine. A blank white door. I pushed it open. The first thing I noticed was the bed. It was huge. The covers were white, just like everything else in the room. I scanned the room. On either side of the large room were two doors. I looked at Ever. "What are these for?"

"Adjoining doors. The girls next to you can come into your room without cutting through the hall. It's a great way to break curfew. If you sneak through the hall, you _will_ get caught. There are security cameras everywhere. But only you have the key to your room, and there are no cameras. So you could have the girls next to you in your room all night. I might cut through some rooms to come see you if you want."

I ran out into the hall. So I could have Bella and Cassie in my room all night if I wanted. Hopefully they were nice. Ever would have to cut through Bella's room to come see me at night. I went back into my room and opened the adjoining door to Bella's room. There was another one, with no knob on my side. My door had no knob on her side. I knocked on her door. No answer. I knocked on Cassie's door. No answer. "Where are they?" I asked.

"Changing, or practicing. You have to master flight before you can leave here, and I believe Cassie has wings. I think Leah does, too."

I shrugged. "Doesn't matter right now, anyway. I need sleep. I didn't sleep at all last night. I might wake up in time for lunch. Bye, Ever. See you later."

Ever left. I shut the lights off and climbed into bed. I lay there in the darkness, fingering the ends of my chopped-off hair until I drifted off to sleep.

**A/N: Yeah, kinda filler-ish. I know.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry it took me so long! I've been busy, even though it's summer. But here it is! It might be kinda crappy. Sorry if it is.**

Truth be told, I didn't wake up in time for lunch. I didn't wake up until nine-thirty that night. What woke me up was a loud knocking noise on one of the adjoining doors. I jumped out of bed and ran a brush through my hair, then opened the door.

On the other side of the door stood a girl. "Hi!" she said. "I'm Cassie. I heard you had gotten here today, so I thought I'd come say hi."

Cassie was at least a foot shorter than me. She had bright orange hair the same length as mine, and blue-green eyes.

"Hi, Cassie. I'm Ryan. Want to come in?" I said.

Cassie nodded and entered the room. She looked around at my bare room. "Haven't had time to decorate yet?"

"No. I only got here today, and I spent most of the morning arguing with Jill. She won. Then I came here and just fell asleep."

"I saw you come in. I thought your face looked familiar, but I didn't recognize you cause Jill made you chop off your hair. I think it looks better short."

"Thanks," I said. I heard more knocking.

Cassie jumped up and ran into her room. "I think that's the welcoming committee." She opened the door and three girls came in. "Guys, this is the new girl, Ryan. Ryan, this is Amy, Jess, and Laura."

Amy shrugged. "She didn't want to come. I guess she didn't feel good or something." Amy was taller than me by a few inches, with bright green eyes and long dark brown hair that reached the middle of her back.

Jess and Laura were identical. They had hazel eyes and jet black hair. The only difference was that Jess's hair was streaked with hot pink, while Laura's was streaked with lavender.

More knocking. This time on my other door. "Bella!" cried Jess, jumping up to let her in.

She opened the door. Three girls walked in. One was Ever.

"Hi, Ryan," Ever said.

Cassie gasped. "_Ever _brought you? Lucky! She's the nicest Changed here. You know who brought me? Jill."

I put a comforting hand on her arm. "Jill sucks," I said.

One of the new girls laughed. "Hi, Ryan. I'm Leah. This is Bella. We're twins."

They looked nothing alike. Leah's eyes were bright green, while Bella's were purple. A strange eye color. It made her look eerie and mysterious. Leah had long, light blonde hair. Bella's was short and dirty blonde.

"Hey," I said. I couldn't look away from Bella's strange eyes.

"You're looking at my eyes, aren't you?" Bella asked a moment later.

"I-uh-yeah," I stammered.

"They weren't always like this. They used to be the same color as Leah's. But then one morning while I was here, during the Change, I woke up and they were purple. It's kinda creepy, I know, but I just had to get used to it," she told me.

Her eyes had changed color? I shivered and cast a quick glance in the full-length mirror next to the door. My eyes were, thankfully, still brown.

Bella saw me look. She laughed. "Don't worry. It's never happened before. I'm the first Changed to be able to shape-shift, so it was probably part of that." To demonstrate, she changed into a cat and back again.

Leah slapped her arm. "Show-off," she muttered.

"What can the rest of you do? Well, I already know Ever's. And mine," I said.

Leah and Cassie sprouted wings. Leah's were dark gray with white spots, and Cassie's were jet black with white stripes, kind of like a zebra's pelt. Amy held up one hand to show me webbing between her fingers. Looking down, I noticed there was webbing between her toes, too.

"I can breathe underwater, too," she told me.

Jess and Laura melted into shadows. One second they were there, the next they weren't, and gray splotches took their places. I tried as hard as I could to unfurl the wings I knew I would grow, but they didn't come.

"You will start your Training tomorrow. You may not be able to open your wings until next week, though. It's different for everyone. Some people will be here for months before they can open their wings. Don't worry," Ever said. "Do you want to sleep?" she added.

I shook my head. "Stay. Unless you want to leave. It's fine," I told the other girls.

No one left.


End file.
